On Singing in Worship

Have you ever thought about Christians and singing? They do it all the time, sometimes the songs don’t even have words, but just “Oh” and “Lalala”, yet these are the most emotional parts. At Biola we sometimes sing a song called With everything. Near the end, after the second chorus, they start singing “Oh” and people become very emotional. Even when they return to the words, the majority of the people in the crowd stay on the “oh”, and the same is true at Biola. So why is this? Shouldn’t we be focused on the words and what they mean, and what meaning could “Oh” have that glorifies God? Surely if a non-Christian came in they would think we were freaks, so what is going on in this moment?
Let’s back up a few steps. In church or Christian gatherings we come together in order to be fed. We like to think that it is only spiritual, but in fact all parts of man are to be fed. What are those parts? Plato says in Republic that man is made out of four parts: the appetitive, the spirited, the rational, and the just. The appetitive is related to the stomach, the desires, and is the biggest part mass wise. The spirited is the chest, the drive to do something, action. The rational is the mind, thinking, and logic. Justice is the keeping of the other three in it’s own business. For example, man should not be ruled by the appetitive, but the rational. The rational should be above the appetitive, but should not be the appetitive. (This took hundreds of pages to explain, so this is a very simple condensed version). The truth was that Plato got pretty close, if not dead on. C.S. Lewis, Paul, and much of Christian thought can relate to Plato. Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe quotes Plato directly. Christians use other terms though (and if you’re confused, this should make sense). When Jesus is asked what the greatest command is, he says,

“The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:29-31

Lets focus on that first command. As you see it has four parts that we are to love the Lord with (I believe Lewis writes on this, but I haven’t read enough to be certain). Heart, soul, mind, and strength: the four parts we are to love with, and they contain all of a man. In comparison we can see that the strength or body relates to the appetitive, for it is what drives our appetite and wants for physical things; emotions are the spirited because they drive us for a cause and are what bravery comes from; Mind to the rational; Soul to the just, as soul is the part that governs who we are. Now that we have these four laid out, let’s see what happens to the Christian in church.
When we go to church we go to get fed, but which parts are fed? The mind is fed by the wisdom and knowledge of the preaching; the spirit is fed by the Holy Spirit in teaching us and guiding us, giving the message power; the emotions/heart are fed in worship and possibly the body as well. Looking at music we can gain wisdom from it, but it is more of an emotional experience, something that needs to happen. When we sing we are able to enter an emotional connection with God and express our emotions to Him. This is where we are fed emotionally. When we leave the words behind and begin to sing music itself, we are no longer trying to feed the mind by thinking of the words, but we give over to the emotions to connect with God. That is why the “oh” is held onto so dearly. Raw emotion is expressed to God in a special way through music. The body can also be fed here as we raise our hands, tap our feet, sway to the music, dance, etc. Another thing about emotions is that they release hormones which our bodies need. Singing, with the emotions, helps release hormones so they aren’t built up. This is another point that is important to singing for worship.
Often times people will leave churches because they don’t like the music. This seems, and is, a selfish sounding reason. Others would say that you just need to stick it out. There is truth in both, but when it comes down to it the real question is are you being fed fully? If you cannot connect with the music, then the heart and body can feel left out of the service experience. Not to say that you can’t feel them ever (volunteering with kids, service projects, and the like feed the body, while tending to the needs of others can easily feed or exercise the emotions), but they are put out of rhythm with the others. When people leave a church because of the music they don’t go through this thought process. I am not saying that people should or should not leave a church because of music, but that each person must make sure they are fed fully, in all aspects.
In regards to the other two, the preacher must not only know his facts, but also be preaching with the Holy Spirit to be effective, and visa versa.
A little note to students, specifically high schoolers: make sure that you sing. I was giving Jacob F a bad time on Sunday, telling him that he needed to sing in order to release his hormones so that he wouldn’t be controlled by his body (my purpose was to make him as uncomfortable as possible, but there was some truth to it). So sing your heart out. As emotional teenagers it is the healthiest way to get your emotions out.

Since I’ve gotten out of Biola for break, ideas like these have been building in my head upon my education. I would write more often, but by the time I have the drive to do it and the Holy Spirit leading, I am too tired and am already in bed. Fortunately today I was able to write this before too late. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to write some more before I go back.